Philip L. Archibald

Madison - Philip Linwood Archibald died peacefully October 2, 2023.  He was born in Monticello, Maine April 30^th, 1923, making him 100 years old at the time of his death.  He served in World War II as a gunner on a PT boat in the Mediterranean, then the Pacific, came home and worked as a logging scaler with his father Arnot in the great north woods of Maine.  During that time he played semi-pro baseball, even pitched against the great Ted Williams in an exhibition game which he claims to have struck out the hall of famer.  Later he married Barbara McKeen and ran a grocery store in his hometown of Monticello, Maine before leaving to study civil engineering at the University of Maine.  He and Barbara and their firstborn child (Jack) then moved to Ann Arbor, Michigan where he received his Master’s degree in Forestry and added another son (Jeffrey) to the family, after which he started his career with the U.S. Forest Service.

His career took him to California, Mississippi, North Carolina, Georgia, Wisconsin, Pennsylvania and Washington D.C. before finally retiring back to Georgia.  By the end of his career he had become Supervisor of the Nicolet National Forest in Rhinelander, Wisconsin and finally the national head of the Forest Service’s Information and Education Division.  He and Barbara lived in Madison, Wisconsin their final thirteen years near Jeff and Judy.   They had three boys, Jack, Jeff and Boyd.  Boyd and his wife Lois have three children, Thomas, Kaitlyn and Michael plus three grandchildren, Dylan, Liam and Blake.  Jeff is married to Judy Archibald and Jack is married to Karen Prasse.  Phil was very devoted to his grandchildren and they returned the favor with numerous visits, phone calls, emails and photographs.  

Phil was born to humble beginnings in northern Maine and despite his great success in the Forest Service, moving to the highest ranks, that humility was one of his enduring hallmarks.  All his life he enjoyed the outdoors, hunting, fishing, boating and, most of all, golf.  At 86 and 87 he shot his age and he continued playing until he was 97.   

For many years he went on long trips with his sons, twice for weeks at a time on houseboats on the Mississippi and twice cruising the Swanee and St. John’s Rivers in Florida. 

The last three years of his life were spent at Attic Angel Place in assisted living apartments.  The staff there were incredibly kind and generous to him, becoming in essence his extended family.  His remains will be taken back to Monticello, Maine where generations of his relatives are buried, some as far back as the 1700’s. He will be missed. 

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